


The Meeting

by thMaddHatter



Series: Red Headed Devil Verse [1]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Eleanor Is A Beard, I hope its sad, M/M, POV Third Person Omniscient, Zayn Only Mentioned, Ziam Mayne - Freeform, babygate, briana only mentioned, elounor mentioned, larry stylinson - Freeform, louis is a dad, louis tomlinson baby, minor confusion in the beginning, not sure what to tag this, this does not have a happy ending, zayn's leave is a stunt, zerrie is pr, zerrie mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 14:44:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4352897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thMaddHatter/pseuds/thMaddHatter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One Direction and their management team have a meeting to discuss their newest stunt, and it catches all the boys off guard.</p><p>This does not have a happy ending, and no I'm not sorry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my first contribution to the 1D fandom.
> 
> All this drama with Louis being a daddy happened, so I did this. Because I'm sadistic. And possibly a little masochistic.
> 
> I'm American and I busted this out in like an hour without even an idea of who could be a beta. So, sorry if it has too many american-isms in it.
> 
> Warning: I think Zayn's leave is a PR stunt and that is apparent in this fic.
> 
> Also I know jack diddly squat about how the management end of all this stuff works, so I made shit up. I'm pretty sure it doesn't really effect the story, but if you do know this kind of stuff then it might sound stupid.

“No!” Liam stood up, mouth agape and eyes nearly bulging out of his head. “Absolutely not! No!” Harry shot a sympathetic look to Louis before reaching a hand over to comfort Liam, patting him on the arm soothingly. “You cannot do this! It’s fucking unfair!” Liam pulled out of Harry’s grip to pace the room a bit, pulling a hand through his hair in agitation.

The 4 boys had been sitting around a conference table with 3 of the higher ups from their management team and the pair of PR agents who’d been handling the stunt surrounding Zayn’s departure. It was the same 5 people that gave Liam the worst news of his career. They’d gathered the boys in their London office on the eve of their departure for their first US tour date with only minor details about the reasons. The only warning they’d been given was that it was to discuss their latest big PR stunt. So obviously Zayn’s departure.

The discussion had been going on for barely 15 whole minutes with Liam hardly even listening. They’d already taken his Zayn away, he barely cared what happened next until the day they finally brought him back. He’d been playing with his phone and absently scrolling his Aunt Zileh’s Instagram when he’d heard the words “pregnancy scandal” and that was fucking it. He hadn’t even let the agent finish their sentence before he shot out of the chair.

“All this and now you’re going to fake a Zerrie pregnancy too?” he couldn’t believe his ears. “This is fucking bullshit!” There was no way he could take this. There was no way he could handle it. The engagement was hard enough, but at least Zayn was there to comfort him and remind him of the gap between their public life and the truth while it sunk in. There was absolutely no way he could survive all the drama surrounding a pregnancy between his fiancé and somebody else. Especially not without Zayn there.

“This is too much!” He waved a frustrated hand through the air as if he could just brush the whole situation aside. He wished he could, but underneath it all he knew he had no choice in the matter. He had absolutely no control. And it made him angry. “I can’t do it!” he hissed, eyes narrowed as he turned back to the table. “I will not!”

A red headed woman with her hair pulled into a tight bun sighed heavily and rolled her eyes at his dramatics. “Sit down, Liam,” she ordered snappily, losing her patience.

Liam stood his ground, jaw set and glaring at her with enough venom to burn a hole through solid stone. He hated that woman with every fiber of his being. He knew all 5 of the boys did. She was singlehandedly the source of all the terrible things they’d had to go through over the years. The forced closetings, beards and fake relationships, every stupid rumor, terrible tweet, and poorly timed decision came from this woman. At one point he’d known her name, but they’d referred to her as Taskmaster, the Dragon Lady, and Satan so many times over the years that he’d long since forgotten what it was.

He knew she could make his life a living hell for disobeying her. Hell, she’d made a sport of it over the past 5 years and even seemed to enjoy every bit of it. But Liam couldn’t listen. He couldn’t just sit and pretend to be okay when they were doing this to him. They were destroying his life from the inside out and taking away everything that was important to him.

“I don’t deserve this!” he shouted at her. “And neither does Zayn!” He stomped closer to the table and swung an arm out in a violent gesture to the other boys at the table. “Harry, Zayn, Louis, Niall, and I are people, not pawns or characters to toy with, and I’m sick of it!”

“Be quiet, child,” The Red Headed Devil commanded. “You’re embarrassing yourself.”

Harry placed his hand on Liam’s bicep now that he was in reach again. “Liam,” he said gently. “Please, just sit.” Harry looked up at him with pleading green eyes and all Liam’s anger crumbled. He could be as mad as he wanted, but he was just making it worse for all of them and that’s not what he wanted. He needed to keep it together for the boys.

He huffed in discontent before loudly dropping back to his seat between Harry and Niall. Niall reached over to wrap an arm around his back, gripping his shoulder firmly, similarly to the way Zayn would have. It wasn’t quite the same. Zayn’s fingers were a bit thinner and his grip a bit heavier, and he would have squeezed the back of his neck instead of his shoulder. It wasn’t quite comforting, but Liam appreciated it all the same. Beneath the table, Louis reached his feet across Harry to nudge at Liam’s calves gently, adding his support from further away.

Beelzebub cleared her throat and twisted a hand through the air to indicate the agent who’d been talking to continue.

“Well,” he started cautiously. “This actually isn’t about Zerrie. This has nothing to do with Little Mix at all. Zayn’s part in the stunt is moving in the same direction for now.”

Niall glanced at Liam when he felt the tension drain out of his shoulders at the words, then turned his gaze back to the agent. “So then what’s this about?” he asked, confusion clear through his Irish brogue.

“This baby is something new altogether that we’ve recently developed.” Satan nodded her head in agreement and Liam shook his head minutely. He knew she would be the one behind this is as well. “We’ve been setting the groundwork for it for a while, but we’ve only just given it the green light. It was meant to be a bit of a last resort and well, here we are.”

“So what?” Louis asked. “If its not a Zerrie baby, then Sophiam?” Liam scoffed loudly at that. There was no way he was cooperating with that one. They had to have known that. Harry put a hand on his wrist and squeezed gently to settle him.

“Nope,” El Diablo corrected, not even trying to contain her smirk. “It’s going to be a Tomlinson baby.”

Harry froze, grip on Liam tightening until it was strong enough to bruise.

“Are you serious?” Louis asked in disbelief.

“We weighed all of our options and we’ve decided that it’s the best option for right now,” the agent insisted.

“How?” Louis asked, scrunching up his face in anger.

“It furthers the narrative in-”

“No!” Louis cut him off. “How in the hell are you going to spin a fake baby of _mine_? There’s no way El would have agreed to it.”

“It’s not Eleanor’s,” the Devil corrected. “Her contract with us has expired so she’s no longer at our disposal.”

“Then what? You hired some fan to pretend I slept with her like they did to Bieber?” He rolled his eyes a bit furiously. “That’s creative. Honestly, how is that even going to be believable?”

“Briana Jungwirth is going to be the mother,” the other agent informed them.

“Who?” Louis didn’t even recognize the name.

“The American stylist you were partying with before.”

“That girl?” Louis forced a sarcastic smile. “Well that makes so much sense,” he snarked. “I spent what, like two days with her? I barely know her. I would definitely have a child with her. Yup. Sounds feasible.”

“Well she’s your best friend now,” The Dragon Lady insisted. “We’ve already gotten her permission as well as the cooperation of a few family members. The articles have been written and are ready to be published by People as soon as we give them a date.”

“People Magazine?” Niall spoke up again. “How’d you get them to go along with this? They don’t usually print this kind of rubbish.”

“We merely promised them the exclusive on an even bigger story.” Taskmaster shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“Zayn’s return?” Liam asked.

“At this point, I think Louis’ baby is going to be a much bigger scoop than Zayn coming back,” Niall muttered.

“That’s the idea,” the first agent responded. “But it all depends on how the public takes it. It may get bigger, it may not. We’re gonna play it by ear and keep up with the usual suspects.”

“So then what’d you promise People?” Niall asked.

“We’ll inform you when the information becomes relevant.” Satan cocked an eyebrow at him, daring him to press the issue.

“Wow,” Louis muttered. “They’re sitting on something bigger than Zayn leaving _and_ my nonexistent baby and they won’t tell us what it is. That’s only mildly terrifying.” He rolled his eyes at them.

“Listen,” one of their managers finally spoke up, an overweight balding man with salt and pepper hair and a goatee. “You should be happy that this is it. Your roles in this are quite passive. You don’t have to do anything. You simply have to continue on as if nothing is happening. Don’t respond to questions or comments. Stay away from the media. Once the rumor’s out, we’ll take care of the rest. You just have to wait for it to pass.”

“So you’re just gonna do a supply and deny?” Liam asked. “With _People_?”

“Basically, but not quite,” the first agent explained. “We’ll supply the rumor, and eventually deny it, but we’re going to stir the pot first. Feed the flames for a bit before we deny it. Get people talking. We want Briana Jungwirth to be the most well-known name in the world.”

“So she gets exposure,” Liam questions. “What do we get out of it?”

“It furthers our narrative-”

“You keep using that excuse!” he snaps. “But you’re just dragging our names through the mud! You can’t keep doing this to us! No one is going to take us seriously. They barely do so now. None of what you’ve been doing is good for our image. How in the hell is this any better?”

A different manager, this one in his early 40s with a dusting of dirty blonde hair, waved Liam off as if his derision was completely unfounded. “We’re the ones in charge of what you look like to the rest of the world. If this is where we decide to go with it, this is where it’s going. You all agreed to it. You signed the contract. Now are we going to have to have this argument every time we have a meeting? Or are you just going to get back with the program?”

Liam sneered at the man.

“You didn’t used to be like this, Liam,” he tutted at the young man. “You used to be Daddy Direction. You were always the first one to cooperate and played the part of damage control perfectly. You always listened because you always wanted it so much. But ever since this Zayn thing you’ve been pushing back against us harder than ever. What happened?”

“I grew up and realized there was something I wanted even more,” Liam gritted out through his teeth.

The young female manager named Julia clapped her hands and sighed loudly. “Listen,” she addressed the whole room. She almost never spoke up unless it was to pacify the boys somehow. “We’ve given you boys the information you need for this latest development. Arguing about it isn’t doing anything. It’s happening no matter what. Now,” she wrung her hands a bit. “This room is feeling rather charged. Why don’t we take a quick ten minutes break, yeah? Drink some water. Clear our heads a little. Then we can come back and move on to the discussion of the tour.” She fanned her hands out to dismiss everyone and they all shuffled away from the table, leaving the 4 boys by themselves.

“Can’t fucking believe it,” Niall scoffed as soon as they were alone. Leaning back in his chair and staring disbelievingly at the roof. “Twenty fifteen… one hell of a year.”

“This is absolutely ridiculous,” Louis spat. He turned around to see what Harry had to say, since he’d been quiet the whole time, but realized that he’d still been frozen in the same spot as before with a death grip on Liam’s wrist. He hadn’t moved a centimeter. “Hazza,” Louis peeled Harry’s hand away and gripped it in his own, drawing the younger boy’s attention to his face. “Are you alright?”

Harry shook his head in response, refusing to meet his fiancé’s eyes.

“I’m so sorry Harry,” Louis pulled their conjoined hands to his lap and placed the other on the juncture of Harry’s neck and shoulder, squeezing it sympathetically. There was no way that this was going to be easy on him.

“You’re going to have a baby,” Harry forced out slowly, voice a complete monotone.

Louis shrugged. “Yeah, a fake baby,” he tried to reason.

“But everyone’s going to think it’s a real baby. And that it’s yours…” Harry dropped his eyes to his lap, lowering his voice to barely above a whisper. “And not mine…”

“Harry…” Louis trailed off. He raised his hand to the back of Harry’s head and pulled him closer so that their foreheads were touching.

Of course Harry was devastated. _Of course_ he was. He loved babies even more than Louis did and thought the idea of pregnancy was beautiful. Though he was typically quite passive aggressive about it, it had been obvious that he’d wanted to father a child for years. Even the fans had picked up on it. The one thing Harry wanted in life more than to be a musician was to be a parent, and he wanted Louis to be the other parent to that child. But there were the obvious reasons why that couldn’t be. And that was before even taking into account their age or the complicated process that would be involved with the two of them creating or even just parenting a child. Harry had long given the idea up, knowing it was impossible until much further into their future.

But the media loved babies. Celebrity babies caused hysteria and the whole world would be going crazy over the first One Direction child. It would be on every news outlet, in every magazine, all over the world. It would easily be bigger than Zayn’s departure. There would be no way for Harry to escape it. Pictures and articles and headlines and interview questions about Louis’ baby. Louis’ baby and not Harry’s.

Harry could feel the same sense of panic building in him that Liam had felt when he thought it was Zayn. Probably exactly what he’d felt when he first heard about the Zerrie engagement. But Liam had already been emotionally drained from touring without his partner and having to play the part of perfect boyfriend to Sophia while lying through his teeth about how happy he is. All while continuing to listen to years of the nonsense Perrie had been spewing about Zayn and engagements and how much his family loved her, all at the benefit of Little Mix. It was infuriating. Liam was mad.

Harry was just hurt. He was heartbroken by it all. He’d handled the closeting. He’d made it through fake relationships and his lothario image. He even dealt with the public separation, but this kind of hurt was not something he was used to or was prepared to handle.

He hadn’t even realized he’d been crying until Louis brushed a tear away and kissed him on the forehead.

“Please, Harry,” Louis begged in a soft voice. “Don’t cry. This is fucked up. This is all fucked up, I know. Please Love, don’t cry.” He had Harry’s face cupped in his hands, and was stroking his cheek with a thumb.

“It should be me.” Harry’s trembling voice was barely a puff of breath against Louis’ lips. He reached up to grab Louis arms, sniffing back tears. “I hate this,” he forced out. “I hate this so fucking much.”

“I know,” Louis nodded against him. “I hate it too.” He gathered Harry up in a hug, pulling the larger boy out of his chair and into Louis’ lap. He wished there was more comforting things to say, but there really wasn’t. The situation sucked and there was nothing they could do about it. Harry pressed his face into Louis’ neck and Louis held him there, stroking his hair while he settled down.

Liam—who’d been drumming his fingers on the table to do something with his nervous energy—huffed loudly beside them. “Everything about this is shit,” he stated. “It always has been.” He shook his head in irritation, scowling a bit. “The way they treat us… it’s like… like-”

“Like we’re not even human,” Niall finished for him.

“I thought I told you before,” The Red Headed Devil taunted as she stepped back into the room, having overheard the tail end of their conversation. “You aren’t people. You’re popstars. You have absolutely no freedom, and no control. We own you.” She echoed the words she’d said to them during the fight about Zayn’s quitting stunt, almost verbatim with that same condescending smirk painted across her features.

The words were like an ice water bath. A reminder of the cold harsh reality they’d signed themselves into as teenagers.

Harry sat up, ignoring the new arrival as best he could as Louis wiped his face clean with a sweater sleeve. He kissed Louis—just a light peck on the mouth—before he returned to his seat just in time for the managers and the other agent to return to the room.

“All better?” Julia asked.

No. Absolutely not.

“Alright then,” she continued past the silence. “Let’s move on.”

**Author's Note:**

> What'd you think? Did it make you sad? I hope so.
> 
> Con/Crit welcome. Just don't be an asshole.


End file.
